If you’re racing, you might as well win.
Yesterday I participated in a race called the “king and queen of the mountain”. The race consisted of the men’s division, 20+ men, mostly honky’s but some Chinesers, and four women. It was entirely uphill. 10 miles, 3200 feet elevation gain. It took me an hour and a half and I passed my only real challenger at about mile 8, some Russian woman who just didn’t deserve to win. So I had to pass her. You know how it is. Ok enough gloating in my win. But it was nice ride, beautiful mountains, listening to my Genesis [“Turn it on!” thanks bro] and nice to be working out outside of the city. The white men were shown up, depsite their multi thousand dollar bikes, by some young chinese guy who must have weighed in at about 90 pounds [with his bike]. Ha!
I apologize for not blogging more, I have been very very busy and now that I am actually working at my jobs, it takes a lot more time away from writing! How are my jobs?
Hui Ling tugs at the heart strings. I sat down to interview a young man, turning 25 this month, a fellow monkey, who said that after completing middle school he sat at home, doing nothing it seems, until he found Hui Ling and has been coming here for almost two years. As critical as i am of their service and lack of properly trained staff, in the end, these folks have a place to go where people like them, accept them, appreciate them, teach them, give them some kind of work that makes them feel worthy. So that was nice.
I like the family style community that they have here. Last Friday after our staff meeting we had a party to celebrate all the staff who had birthdays between January and June. We ate stacks, drank soda, and the birthday folks [me and six others] dressed up in ridiculous costumes and put on our own version of a Chinese New Year’s Day parade. The Chinese celebrate by being loud. They call it ‘re nao’ which literally means hot [like the word you would use to describe the temp outside] and nao which literally means ‘wrangling at the market’, or noisy, clamorous. It was all great fun. Then we went to a restaurant, ate it up, and then we were all forced to sing songs from where we came from. The Frenchman bravely stood up and crooned out something horrible, Chris sang something Flemish, and it got to my turn and I was like, do you get that I may be outgoing and all, but I just don’t sing in front of large crowds? No. not acceptable. So I sang ‘happy birthday’ and everyone joined in! Such a cheater. So it’s going well. I’m almost done with our newsletter, I’ll send it around when it’s really done.
My other job: I never wanted to be an English teacher
And here I am, teaching it up. Somehow I'm teaching Really basic English, I think that is why it is not my favorite. I get tired of correcting the use of 'the,' the lack of pronunciation of the letter 'v', feeling that my teaching is useless because they have already studied the basics of English during grade school and they think just cuz I’m white I will apply my whitey magic and presto they will speak English. Especially when one of them is always translating what I’m asking [tough questions like ‘how many people are in your family?’] and feeling irritated that the students don't have the patience to listen to me and Think about what I’m saying. But it’s paying for my life as I get screwed over by some janky new salary scheme here at Hui Ling [I’m trying not to be bitter about it]. Commission –based salary for the development office? Sounds unethical to me. But this is China.
The Bergler put forth this question, after reading my travel blog: “what did you all do in these outer provinces?? mostly I learned that the trains suck and Chinese people cant hold in their vomit (which is enlightening nonetheless).
Good question, apparently I didn’t get to that. In the first place we visited, Xiahe, there is a famous Tibetan Monastery, one of the largest, or one of the six most important or something, and Tibetans make pilgrimages from Tibet with babies strapped to their backs and grandma with the cane and their only sweatshirt which says “World Football Club” and somehow get to this high mountain village. What do they do when they get there? They walk around the monastery turning the pray wheels. The next town that we visited was Dunhuang, where we saw these amazing caves that folks have been drawing their art in for centuries.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/gansu/dunhuang/mogao_grottoes/
http://www.chinapage.com/dunhua54.gif
http://www.chinapage.com/dunhua56.gif
We had some interesting discussions about the finding of these caves, because there was tons of art and manuscripts that were taken by white folks from the caves, so I was initially irritated by the whites for doing that, but then the literature in the museum there goes on to say that if they didn’t take the stuff the Chinese would have stolen it, burned it, or it would end up in the hands of officials instead of in the museum. So a good point was made. At least the whites are preserving their history/culture for them.
In other news, I purchased some moisturizer based on this English on the front of the bottle: “Sheep placenta Essence”. Now that’s an attention- getting. My skin has never been softer!
I apologize for not blogging more, I have been very very busy and now that I am actually working at my jobs, it takes a lot more time away from writing! How are my jobs?
Hui Ling tugs at the heart strings. I sat down to interview a young man, turning 25 this month, a fellow monkey, who said that after completing middle school he sat at home, doing nothing it seems, until he found Hui Ling and has been coming here for almost two years. As critical as i am of their service and lack of properly trained staff, in the end, these folks have a place to go where people like them, accept them, appreciate them, teach them, give them some kind of work that makes them feel worthy. So that was nice.
I like the family style community that they have here. Last Friday after our staff meeting we had a party to celebrate all the staff who had birthdays between January and June. We ate stacks, drank soda, and the birthday folks [me and six others] dressed up in ridiculous costumes and put on our own version of a Chinese New Year’s Day parade. The Chinese celebrate by being loud. They call it ‘re nao’ which literally means hot [like the word you would use to describe the temp outside] and nao which literally means ‘wrangling at the market’, or noisy, clamorous. It was all great fun. Then we went to a restaurant, ate it up, and then we were all forced to sing songs from where we came from. The Frenchman bravely stood up and crooned out something horrible, Chris sang something Flemish, and it got to my turn and I was like, do you get that I may be outgoing and all, but I just don’t sing in front of large crowds? No. not acceptable. So I sang ‘happy birthday’ and everyone joined in! Such a cheater. So it’s going well. I’m almost done with our newsletter, I’ll send it around when it’s really done.
My other job: I never wanted to be an English teacher
And here I am, teaching it up. Somehow I'm teaching Really basic English, I think that is why it is not my favorite. I get tired of correcting the use of 'the,' the lack of pronunciation of the letter 'v', feeling that my teaching is useless because they have already studied the basics of English during grade school and they think just cuz I’m white I will apply my whitey magic and presto they will speak English. Especially when one of them is always translating what I’m asking [tough questions like ‘how many people are in your family?’] and feeling irritated that the students don't have the patience to listen to me and Think about what I’m saying. But it’s paying for my life as I get screwed over by some janky new salary scheme here at Hui Ling [I’m trying not to be bitter about it]. Commission –based salary for the development office? Sounds unethical to me. But this is China.
The Bergler put forth this question, after reading my travel blog: “what did you all do in these outer provinces?? mostly I learned that the trains suck and Chinese people cant hold in their vomit (which is enlightening nonetheless).
Good question, apparently I didn’t get to that. In the first place we visited, Xiahe, there is a famous Tibetan Monastery, one of the largest, or one of the six most important or something, and Tibetans make pilgrimages from Tibet with babies strapped to their backs and grandma with the cane and their only sweatshirt which says “World Football Club” and somehow get to this high mountain village. What do they do when they get there? They walk around the monastery turning the pray wheels. The next town that we visited was Dunhuang, where we saw these amazing caves that folks have been drawing their art in for centuries.
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/gansu/dunhuang/mogao_grottoes/
http://www.chinapage.com/dunhua54.gif
http://www.chinapage.com/dunhua56.gif
We had some interesting discussions about the finding of these caves, because there was tons of art and manuscripts that were taken by white folks from the caves, so I was initially irritated by the whites for doing that, but then the literature in the museum there goes on to say that if they didn’t take the stuff the Chinese would have stolen it, burned it, or it would end up in the hands of officials instead of in the museum. So a good point was made. At least the whites are preserving their history/culture for them.
In other news, I purchased some moisturizer based on this English on the front of the bottle: “Sheep placenta Essence”. Now that’s an attention- getting. My skin has never been softer!
posted by Claire at 5:53 AM
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